Comment: Labour has gone from being the party of hope to the party of envy

‘If you don’t have anything positive to say, then don’t say anything at all’ is a saying my mother used regularly during my childhood . Just as it worked to reign in my more destructive tendencies back then, it would be a pretty good strategy for whoever wins the Labour leadership election to take forward into his or her first year of leading the opposition.

It might not seem so right now, especially given the farcical scenes from the welfare bill vote, but at its heart I believe Labour has a positive story to tell that really resonates with the public. Fundamentally, the party is about equality. Given that there are few concepts more universally popular than fairness, it shouldn’t really be a hard concept to sell.

Labour has got into difficulty over this in recent years because it has slowly run out of positive ways to help those who have fallen behind to catch up. As it has done so, it has replaced them with ideas that threaten to drag those who are racing ahead back into the mire.

Slowly but surely, the party of hope has become the party of envy. While it could of course be claimed that everyone being as miserable as each other is still an equality of sorts, it really isn’t an equality many people are going to vote for.

This is clearly a real problem for Labour because if it wants to win in 2020, it not only needs to secure the vote of those who are struggling, but also win the backing of those who are making a success of things.

If you ask the sort of relatively well-off middle class people Labour need to win over who they voted for in May, and how they came to that decision, most will say they tried to take into account not only their own welfare, but the good of the country too. Contrary to a lot of the rhetoric coming out of some sections of the Labour Party, most people in this demographic will find the idea of voting for measures that help the least well-off attractive.

They just become far less keen to do so if these measures simultaneously put the financial security of themselves and their offspring in jeopardy. Faced with a Labour Party who seemed hell bent on levelling the playing field by any means possible, it isn’t surprising that so many of Britain’s middle classes could not bring themselves to vote them into power.

For all his faults, Tony Blair proved unequivocally that almost everyone can be convinced to vote in favour of some form of personal sacrifice in order to achieve a more equal society. The message just has to be delivered in the right way.

Since the Blair years, Labour has gradually moved away from a narrative of collaborative social good towards an approach which looks to apportion blame to one group for the plight of others and punish them accordingly.

As May’s election result proves, this not only alienates anyone who has had the temerity to do ok for themselves, it isn’t an attractive message to those who are struggling to get by either. After all, if your neighbours are having a party at their house and you aren’t invited, you probably won’t want someone to head next door and shut the whole thing down on your behalf. Someone who promises to move the party out onto the street and invite everybody who lives on the road has a much more attractive proposition.

Before it can even consider challenging the Conservatives, Labour has to take back ownership of the positive side of equality. The first step in this process is for the next Labour leader to spend the first 18 months in the role reminding the public that equality done the Labour way lifts people up; without dragging anyone else down.

For Labour to win back the public by 2020, it must first curb the constant stream of negative, impotent rhetoric on inequality that dominates its output and turn its attention to communicating positive, concrete ideas that will deliver real equality to every corner of Britain.

Louis Clark writes on business and politics at medium.com/@louisclarkPR and is a member of the Chingford & Woodford Green Labour Party.

14 Responses to “Comment: Labour has gone from being the party of hope to the party of envy”

stevep

You can`t have collaborative social good when one collaborator is hell bent on making a profit out of social “good”, eventually leaving when the profits dry up and letting the other collaborator to pick up the bill caused by essential public services that aren’t profit-making.
Too many of our industries and utilities have been decimated that way, let alone public services.
Social needs need to be managed and provided by social methods.
The public sector is you and me and public sector services should be managed on behalf of you and me. Democratically.
That in itself is a form of equality and social good. Proper collaboration.

Focus-group speak won`t engage the public, or win elections. Labour needs to cut through the bullshit and tell the electorate what the public-sector is, what it does for us and why we need it.

A radical manifesto should be put forward to give British citizens the keys to their own country.

Patrick Nelson

Through the Tories the rich are engaged in class war against the rest. The rest should not sink to the level of the Tories, but neither is it wholesome for people to simply give these vampires their wrists to suck.

JohnRich

Gayle Davies

I can lead the labor or labour parties. I will settle for a new magazine via kickstarter. And I will require a video for this. We can all write in this magazine including the royals.
Regards
Gayle Davies
Australia
Vote labor for Australia and Republican for the US

Gayle Davies

Also with regard to the hair like ice – this relates to helium. curves and loops and also to protein and metals. curves and loops also relates to elephants ears (genes design) and lines in our palms.
Regards
Gayle Davies
Australia

Gayle Davies

aducanumab – try three (or maybe four) metal dots for better results. These are boundary marking dots.
Regards
Gayle Davies
Also with regard to the other entry here on elephants ears, this is flow down technology

Gayle Davies

apparently there is a mix of fans and mocking (what is it with mocking these days – this indicates a feeble mind and an equally enfeebled approach to constructive reasoning) Obama. Just don’t place him on a toilet, he’s already been involved in that concerning us. Unfortunately because i only wrote a great email on uniting technology and the NSA and practically all hacked us. This was seen as an excuse to hound us, create movies on us and steal our IP and film and record us. And the answer of our current fascist government in Australia run (really) by Rupert Morduch is to have our apartment broken into, have us filmed and recorded and use my words for his marketing. it’s bizarre! And it’s completely illegal. In fact the clown sitting next to me thinks he is a spy/agent but if so he must be on the side of chaos. It’s got to be either comedy or a Greek tragedy (sorry Greece). Get your priorities sorted. Having ideas including on tech and science IS NOT ILLEGAL! In fact your actions are illegal because they can be seen as harassment. i don’t require watchdogs and following. Because I dont break the law. In fact those hanging around and hacking are break the law.
Gayle Davies
Australia
Vote Labor
Watch out for and buy my new magazine which I want to place on shelves with the other (frankly many are crappy) publications – that has upset Rupert Murdoch as the page is jumping. After reading my/our magazine who would want to read Rupert’s magazine. I look forward to having the royals write in my magazine also.

Guy Dawe

The old saying goes Labour want to bring everyone down to the same level whereas conservatives want to bring everyone up to the same level (Churchill)
Labour means work (Gordon Brown)
Ironically Labour today think that political discourse is all about unlimited immigration and protecting welfare with nothing to say about the debt and deficit and listening to the needs of the white working class.